News Bruce Vaughn Returns to Disney as Co-Lead of Walt Disney Imagineering

[DLR92]

I think the writing was on the wall for why Lake Nona couldn’t happen — Disney just didn’t have the pull to convince the creatives to leave Southern California.

Agreed. No need to move WDI in Florida. I would have left the company if I were in imagineering.

 

[DisneyHead123]

You cannot just say an image is “open to use” because it came from a print-to-order site or was generated by AI because both rather frequently don’t actually have the rights to use certain imagery.

I understand that, but as we haven’t heard anything else about it in this case, I’m assuming this specific image was in fact a copyright free image. Again, if that’s incorrect that’s a bit different.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I understand that, but as we haven’t heard anything else about it in this case, I’m assuming this specific image was in fact a copyright free image. Again, if that’s incorrect that’s a bit different.

Why are you assuming that? No evidence supports that assumption.

 

[CoastalElite64]

Imagineering has a done a lot of great things in Japan, Asia, Florida etc despite not being based there, so it's not about their base location.
The operational problems DW has are more localized.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Agreed. No need to move WDI in Florida. I would have left the company if I were in imagineering.

Same.

There are so many factors that would make many people not want to relocate to Florida, especially at that specific time, and especially if you are from California.

 

[Dranth]

It was on multiple levels as I lined up in my comment, especially for those of us who are in Orlando and the surrounding area - but also Disney fans as a whole. It would have meant much more investment in WDW as that would have been Imagineering's home resort, for one...

It showed an amazingly poor understanding of their employees to think they could just shunt them off to the middle of Florida without any pushback. Having said that, I do think it could have potentially been salvaged once Chapek was gone by shifting to a long-term migration instead of a forced relocation. However, that was never going to happen under the conditions the company was being placed by an actively combative state government.

 

[DLR92]

Imagineering has a done a lot of great things in Japan, Asia, Florida etc despite not being based there, so it's not about their base location.
The operational problems DW has are more localized.

I believe they use building onsite at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. It serves as a satellite office for WDI.

Same.

There are so many factors that would make many people not want to relocate to Florida, especially at that specific time, and especially if you are from California.

If anything WDW should just have a satellite office within WDW. But I think WDW has one, which each flagships resorts around the globe too.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Why are you assuming that? No evidence supports that assumption.

We’re going down a lot of rabbit holes here. That was an assumption based on the hypothetical idea that they both used the same copyright free image. Or maybe Disney bought the image. Or maybe the Disney designer also owned the Redbubble store. Etc, etc, etc.

My fault for getting too far into hypothetical land. Back to my original point. None of us know what happened. It seemed to me that there was a quick rush to judgment when, again, no one knows what actually happened. There are some situations that I think would be pretty innocuous, and some that would be concerning.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It showed an amazingly poor understanding of their employees to think they could just shunt them off to the middle of Florida without any pushback. Having said that, I do think it could have potentially been salvaged once Chapek was gone by shifting to a long-term migration instead of a forced relocation. However, that was never going to happen under the conditions the company was being placed by an actively combative state government.

More work being done in Florida was already happening and has continued to happen.

 

[Trauma]

Same.

There are so many factors that would make many people not want to relocate to Florida, especially at that specific time, and especially if you are from California.

Yes and those people leaving the company would have been the best thing that could have happened.

 

[Disney Analyst]

It showed an amazingly poor understanding of their employees to think they could just shunt them off to the middle of Florida without any pushback. Having said that, I do think it could have potentially been salvaged once Chapek was gone by shifting to a long-term migration instead of a forced relocation. However, that was never going to happen under the conditions the company was being placed by an actively combative state government.

Personally, I think Imagineering should always be based out of their historic location, it's where they belong.

But no reason they couldn't build a Florida campus, and have a team on each coast, much like they already do.

But people who have a career with a historic and well known organization like WDI have expectations of where they'll be, the lifestyle it creates, and what it is going to look like. Forcing them to relocate bursts that bubble, and it was inevitably going to turn into soft layoffs.

 

[lazyboy97o]

We’re going down a lot of rabbit holes here. That was an assumption based on the hypothetical idea that they both used the same copyright free image. Or maybe Disney bought the image. Or maybe the Disney designer also owned the Redbubble store. Etc, etc, etc.

My fault for getting too far into hypothetical land. Back to my original point. None of us know what happened. It seemed to me that there was a quick rush to judgment when, again, no one knows what actually happened. There are some situations that I think would be pretty innocuous, and some that would be concerning.

Some of us are familiar with the policies and processes involved. You’re accusing others of rushing to judgement while rushing to assumptions and presenting hypotheticals that you do not realize are actually worse than what most have assumed. What you are presenting as innocuous is actually very concerning.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Some of us are familiar with the policies and processes involved. You’re accusing others of rushing to judgement while rushing to assumptions and presenting hypotheticals that you do not realize are actually worse than what most have assumed. What you are presenting as innocuous is actually very concerning.

The policies that would apply depend on the details of what happened, which are unknown.

At any rate, I think we’re past the point of productive conversation here so I’ll take a break from this thread for a bit.

 

[FutureCEO]

Has Bruce Vaughn coming back helped at all? Too early to tell but based off the Rivers of America fiasco, I would say no.

 

[Gusey]

Has Bruce Vaughn coming back helped at all? Too early to tell but based off the Rivers of America fiasco, I would say no.

Too early to judge but based on the quick turnaround of Moana/Zootopia in AK becoming Tropical Americas only a few months after he came back, I'm hoping yes. And the move away from cloning already existing attractions makes me more hopeful.

 

[peter11435]

Has Bruce Vaughn coming back helped at all? Too early to tell but based off the Rivers of America fiasco, I would say no.

Judge him by the quality of the projects produced. WDI isn’t really the one deciding what closes, what gets replaced, and what gets built where.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

WDI moving to FL would have been a major win for quality and common sense. Losing “Imagineers” trained in the UC ecosystem wasn’t a bug, it was a feature. Also, when WDI is in CA and not where their bread is buttered (WDW), you wind up with parks like DAK which are extremely hot with little AC and lands like TSI which likewise lack AC and shade.

 

[JoeCamel]

WDI moving to FL would have been a major win for quality and common sense. Losing “Imagineers” trained in the UC ecosystem wasn’t a bug, it was a feature. Also, when WDI is in CA and not where their bread is buttered (WDW), you wind up with parks like DAK which are extremely hot with little AC and lands like TSI which likewise lack AC and shade.

Darn tourists got weak. Back in the cracker days people lived in houses set up on piers with only the breeze for air conditioning. Lucky to have a refrigerator for the food.
A day outside? Normal operations in Florida but I guess you could vacation inside a box where it's 74F all the time

 

[lazyboy97o]

Darn tourists got weak. Back in the cracker days people lived in houses set up on piers with only the breeze for air conditioning. Lucky to have a refrigerator for the food.
A day outside? Normal operations in Florida but I guess you could vacation inside a box where it's 74F all the time

It’s funny how projects people think were designed by out of touch Californians actually had significant design work done by teams based in Florida. If anything, it’s the Floridians thinking things will be fine.

 

[JoeCamel]

It’s funny how projects people think were designed by out of touch Californians actually had significant design work done by teams based in Florida. If anything, it’s the Floridians thinking things will be fine.

And they are. Joe built a great park